Monday, January 28, 2013

I am going to give the same warning for this top ten list
that I did last year: these are my top ten (and then some) “favorite” films of
the year.I am in position to claim one
film is technically “better” than any other film.Sure, I might be more likely than most to
comment on filming techniques, score, acting, etc., but at the end of the day,
or year, I still simply pick which movies I enjoyed the most.Was Anna Karenina more impressive from a
filmmaking standpoint than Lincoln?Yes, absolutely. But while I enjoyed Anna Karenina, it didn’t
contain subject matter that I found particularly interesting nor did it have
any performances that match up with Lincoln.The point is that these top ten lists that
flood the internet and magazines around this time of the year are all
subjective.It’s all personal
taste.That said, I have kind of a
boring list, as my top three films are on nearly all of the top ten lists.I’m not one to lie just to be different,
though, so I stuck with the ten films I enjoyed the most this year.I found 2012 to be a great year for movies,
which is why I also added a few comments for five more films, and have a
lengthy honorable mention list.So here
it is.Feel free to completely disagree
with me.All I ask is that you keep an
open mind, especially about the movies on the list that you haven’t seen.It’s always okay to hate a movie, but only if
you’ve seen it.

Also, I did miss out on a handful of films that some people have been praising, such as Holy Motors, End of Watch, Rust and Bone, Alps, and Compliance.

1. Lincoln

I honestly did not expect this to
end up as my number one film of the year.I knew Day-Lewis would give a great performance, but I was skeptical of
Spielberg.I was afraid this was going
to be a safe, plain patriotic film.I
wasn’t entirely wrong, but I was floored by how effective, and entertaining,
the film was.Many have complained of
the film being boring, and I understand that, with all of the politics and long
conversations, but I love that stuff.While some were falling asleep, I was paying close attention.The entire film works for me.But it was Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance
that sealed the deal for me.

2. Django Unchained

An extremely close second because of the entertainment value in Quentin
Tarantino’s edgy film.Some are offended
by the very premise of the film, but what can I say?It’s kind of hard to offend me.I enjoy movies and that is what this is: a
very enjoyable movie.

3. Zero Dark Thirty

An important but riveting film.It’s catching a lot of flak concerning torture and all that, but if you
can get past that, this lengthy film expertly recreates the nuts and bolts of
the manhunt that brought Osama bin Laden to justice.More importantly, though, the film leaves the
viewer with some questions about the war on terror and how it’s being waged.

4. The Master

Paul
Thomas Anderson is a filmmaker I will always find interesting, and that is the
basis for this pick.Some will watch
this and absolutely hate it, and I understand that.It’s a strange film.I started to doubt my enjoyment of the film
weeks after my initial viewing, but watching it again recently, I realized once
again that I love this movie.It’s
endlessly fascinating to me.

5. Prometheus

This is one of my controversial picks and the one that will have some people
completely dismiss me.I don’t know why
everyone on the internet chose this film to nitpick incessantly.I suppose it didn’t live up to their
expectations, whatever those were.I
enjoyed the film very much, though.It’s
a science-fiction film with a brain.Yes, with a brain.Most people
criticize the film because of the “stupid” things the characters do, but that
says nothing about the themes of the film.I don’t know, maybe I’m just easily pleased, but I thought director
Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi was entertaining and thought-provoking.Also, this is a sci-fi film that relied
surprisingly heavily on practical effects.In today’s movie world, that is something that should be appreciated.

6. The Dark Knight
Rises

Another film people are now ripping to shreds because of plot
holes online.(Because the first two
films of the trilogy were documentaries, right?)I thought this was a pleasing and fitting
conclusion to my favorite superhero series of all time.I know the battle was between this and The
Avengers, but I liked both.I just
enjoyed this one more.And as with
Prometheus, the amount of practical stunt work and visual effects deserves
much more credit than it has received thus far.

7. Cloud Atlas

This film could have easily been a complete mess (and some would argue that it
is), but somehow the filmmakers took a complex book and compiled an amazing
film experience out of it.It gets bonus
points from for the sheer ambition of it, but more than that, the film grabbed
me and made me care about what was happening.

8. Wanderlust

This pick might leave people simply asking, “What is Wanderlust?”Unfortunately, this hilarious comedy failed
to find much success at the box office or on home video.I think this movie is worthy of cult status
and hopefully time will rectify that.Maybe not, though.It is a truly
absurd film, and is certainly not for everyone.But in a year filled with great comedies, I found this one to rise above
the rest.It features that rare
self-aware comedy that never has to sink to the level of actors winking at the
camera.If you like comedies off the
beaten path, check this out.

9. Looper

I’m
a sucker for sci-fi and even though the paradoxes of time travel films tend to
bother me, this film does it right.Joseph Gordon-Levitt is terrific and his Bruce Willis impression is
worth watching alone.Thankfully,
writer-director Rian Johnson makes this stylish, interesting film much more
than a lengthy Willis impression.

10. Lawless

This is a film that I feel has been unfairly forgotten by year-end lists and
awards.This story of bootlegging in Virginia
is an interesting period piece that features a great cast.Definitely one of the most crowd-pleasing
films on my list (I have yet to talk to someone who did not like it).I really just think this film needs to find a
larger audience because it is a very fun film.

Five close picks

The Cabin in the
Woods – Any horror movie fan should check this horror-comedy out.Don’t expect an actual horror movie, though.

MoonriseKingdom – Wes Anderson being Wes Anderson.At this point you either like it or you
don’t.

The Avengers –
A truly entertaining, fun time.I just
like Batman more.

Argo–
Terrifically tense film that is getting plenty of love for Affleck’s directing
and rightfully so.

Skyfall – An
extremely satisfying Bond film that might even please old-school fans…might.

The killing of Osama bin Laden, or UBL, as he’s referred to
in this film, captivated me much as it captivated most of the western
world.It was one of those strange
moments in history when we found ourselves cheerful and exuberant because of a
death. Okay, not just “a” death, but “the” death of the world’s most infamous
terrorist. After the good feelings subsided, the questions began. How did they
find him? Who shot him? Where’s the body? Are their pictures? Those types of questions
can hold interesting answers, sure, but there are much more important
questions, such as: Does this change anything? Was all the work and money spent
really worth it? Had people died in vain during the long search? Zero Dark
Thirty, the latest from director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), attempts
to answer, and at least asks, most if not all of both types of questions.

Zero Dark Thirty handles the why and the how of the manhunt expertly. We’re
given multiple examples of the terrorism that explain the need for UBL’s capture,
most notably the sounds of 9/11 played over a black screen. Then we are presented
with how information was procured not just for UBL’s capture, but also in the
attempt to thwart any terrorism. This, of course, is where the film ventures into controversial
territory because torture (depending on your definition of the word) was used
in the early years of the war on terror. The debate is whether the film
condones torture as an effective means of gaining intelligence. Some are using the
film as evidence that, yes, torture brought us the information to get UBL. Is
that true? Sort of. Certainly advances are made by the investigators in the
film thanks to torture, but in no way is this film some ringing endorsement of
the practice. If anything, the film makes it clear that torture messes people
up on both sides of the situation. It also shows that information can be gained
through nonviolent means, as well. Anyway, this film will only start an
argument about torture; it won’t finish it.

Because of the torture elements, Zero Dark Thirty can be a difficult film to
watch, but that’s the point. The main character, CIA agent Maya (Jessica
Chastain), appears to serve as a representative of the audience when we first
see her. She is in the interrogation chamber, and she seems sickened by what she
sees. Thankfully, Maya is not simply a personification of how the audience
should feel because, once left alone with the detainee, she does not cry or
turn into a sympathetic, helpful woman. Instead, she coldly lets the detainee know
that they want information, and they are going to get it.

If Zero Dark Thirty is anything more than a procedural
about the UBL manhunt, then it is a character portrait of Maya.Perhaps Maya does not necessarily represent
the audience so much as she is the personification of the war on terror.Are terrible means justified by the
ends?Just how long can people keep
fighting this war?Maya has to go
through all of that along with being faced with actual terrorism.It is because of this focus, and Chastain’s
amazing performance, that Zero Dark Thirty becomes much more than a
docudrama.Chastain is equal parts
victim and perpetrator.I don’t mean
that legally speaking, but emotionally.It’s a very hard balance to strike without seeming completely
inconsistent, but Chastain is able to convey, believably, a character than can
cry one moment and face down her boss or a detainee the next.

The rest of the cast is impressive, as well, if not for
performances then for the sheer variety of it.The standout, aside from Chastain, has to be Jason Clarke, as a slightly
eccentric interrogator.He brings some
serious intensity to the role and a surprising amount of much needed comedic
relief.I’m not sure why he’s being left
out of the previews so much because he carries a bit of the film’s weight.The rest of the cast is great, but those two
performances really stood out to me.

Watching the previews, one would assume that this film is
largely about the raid on UBL’s compound.This is misleading, just as the focus on Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt
in the previews is misleading (they are minor characters in the overall
film).Zero Dark Thirty is a modern
spy film in that the majority of it is about the inner politics of the CIA and
how information is gathered, lost, painstakingly analyzed, ignored, etc.It is interesting that James Bond is
experiencing a resurgence the same year that this film is released because Maya
represents a realistic Bond character in that she is not allowed to do all the
things Bond can do even though her ultimate goal is similar to Bond’s in that
she wants to stop the bad guy.There is
nothing glamorous about the work Maya does.To be honest, most of it is boring.The tediousness of the work explains the lengthy running time of the
film (over two and a half hours).This
was not a simple task, and it was also bogged down in politics.There’s no need to try and spice that up and
lie about how things work in the modern spy world.It may seem strange to praise a film for focusing
on tedium, but I feel that it helps the audience identify with Maya’s struggle
throughout.

Perhaps tedious is not the best word because I truly found
all of the film to be interesting.It’s
just that at some point, since we all know the ending, you start to think,
“Okay, come on, we get it, move on.”This is what Maya is thinking the entire time, as well, though, which is
why it works.

There are certain spy elements that may seem a bit boring as
Maya goes through files and videos, but Zero Dark Thirty also features some
extremely skillfully filmed action elements.Director Kathryn Bigelow (who was inexplicably snubbed by the Academy)
has done an amazing job of recreating events and filming them in a clear way
that is easy to follow.And while Zero
Dark Thirty may not contain as many insanely tense moments as The Hurt
Locker, it still surpasses that film in ambition and technique.Bigelow is certainly experiencing the apex of
her career right now.Credit is due to
screenwriter Mark Boal, too, as he has turned in an exhaustively researched
script that never feels fake or too extensive.

Overall, I am glad I held off from compiling my top ten list
until I had seen this film because it will certainly be on it.Zero Dark Thirty is an immensely effective,
entertaining, and thought-provoking film that features a masterful leading
performance.It pretty much does
everything that I think a movie should do, and it does it well.Don’t look to Zero Dark Thirty to form your
opinion on torture, look to it for a much larger picture of the war on terror
and what it has all been about.It won’t
answer all of the questions for you, necessarily, but it will make you think,
and that is much more effective.

Quentin Tarantino has become a somewhat controversial figure in cinema. There are the Tarantino devotees, who have been on board since they first saw Reservoir Dogs and enjoy every single thing he does (I can nearly be classified as part of this group). Then there are the people that have been less than impressed with everything he has done since Pulp Fiction. I feel that he has become an internet target in that it’s cool to hate him since so many film nerds love everything he does. To be fair, he set himself up for this as his films have turned into a series of references to other, much more obscure films. What is the difference between copying and paying homage? I believe it comes down to opinion: if you enjoy his films, then Tarantino is paying homage; if you dislike the films, he’s stealing. This has been the issue with Tarantino for some time, but he opened up a new debate with his last film, Inglourious Basterds: is it okay to alter history and find humor within very serious situations? Once again, if you’re with the film, then yes, it’s totally okay. Now with Django Unchained, a cartoonishly violent, surprisingly funny film about slavery, Tarantino asks this question of the audience again, and my answer is an emphatic “yes.”

I love most of Tarantino’s work (Death Proof just didn’t work for me), but I rarely take it seriously. I think the filmmaker sets out to simply entertain people, which means he must do whatever he thinks is best to accomplish that. If that’s constantly using cheesy zooms taken from old kung fu movies, or spraying goofy amounts of blood from bullet wounds, or having the precursor to the Klan have a complaint session about holes in bags, then so be it. If it works, it works. This is why there can be laughter during a movie about slavery. Tarantino isn’t pretending to give a history lesson (this is the guy who decided to kill off Hitler in a movie theater, after all). He is trying to get you to enjoy yourself, and I enjoyed myself immensely throughout Django.

Entertainment as a goal doesn’t excuse a film from controversy, however. Some will be, and are, angry about the film. Complaints range from taking the slavery issue lightly at all to the many uses of the “N-word” throughout the film. I understand how all of this can be offensive, but I suppose I’m not easily offended. But be forewarned: this is certainly not a film for everyone. And even if some of the violence is portrayed as humorous, there are still very gruesome and brutal moments that will sicken people.

If you can get past all of the possibly offensive material, though, you will witness one of the best films of the year. The story of the lengthy film is relatively simple. Bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees Django (Jamie Foxx) because he needs his help tracking down some slavers. After they’re done, Schultz agrees to help Django find and rescue his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from the clutches of the delightfully evil Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his faithful servant, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson).

The film ends up being quite lengthy because Tarantino has finally made his spaghetti western, and he couldn’t help but fill it with references. I won’t pretend to share Tarantino’s encyclopedic knowledge of film, but I did enjoy all of the little touches that I picked up here and there. It just feels good to watch the movie with a crowd and notice Franco Nero (the original Django from the 1966 film) and know that I am one of the only people that caught it.

That’s not to say that references alone make this film enjoyable. It’s loaded with Tarantino weirdness. From the hilarious and at times self-aware dialogue to the fact that Schultz drives around a carriage with a giant tooth on top of it; there is plenty here for the uninitiated viewer. Tarantino has struck a great balance of honest storytelling and his trademark weirdness. I like watching his films because I know that anything might happen, even if the story takes place in a historical setting.

Tarantino doesn’t get too crazy with anachronisms, except perhaps with the music. Modern day music, along with some classic songs, is used throughout the film. It might take some people out of the film, but I found the songs perfectly suitable for each scene. Tarantino seems to always find the ideal music for each of his films.

Django is not simply a stylishly violent film with a good soundtrack, though. Tarantino’s scripts have long been ripe material for actors. Jamie Foxx is great as Django, and his transition from frightened slave to empowered bounty hunter is a realistic one. Unfortunately for him, the supporting roles of the film are much more interesting than the title character. Christoph Waltz is gaining attention yet again for his supporting role (he won an Oscar for Basterds) as Schultz. It’s a fun performance, and he makes every line of dialogue lively. Samuel L. Jackson gives his best performance in years as the absolutely evil slave Stephen. His performance is impressive, and hilarious, because he gets to play up the stereotype of the helpful slave, but also gets to show the true ruthlessness of his character. Then there is Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s something inherently interesting about a character that you’re supposed to hate, and DiCaprio fully embraces that. People were up in arms when he wasn’t nominated for the Academy Award, but it’s a packed category this year. Waltz getting the nomination makes sense, but I’m surprised more people are not singing Jackson’s praises. I felt that his lack of a nomination was a bigger snub than DiCaprio. DiCaprio winning an Oscar is a question of when. Who knows when Jackson will take on another prestige role like this?

Django Unchained is the total package for me. It has great action, fitting music, a historical setting, spaghetti western influences, comedy, Tarantino’s style, and fun performances. Honestly, the only thing keeping this movie from being my favorite of the year is Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of Lincoln. If not for that great performance, Django Unchained would be the best film of the year, in my opinion. Try not to be offended and enjoy Quentin Tarantino’s latest piece of entertainment.